Tag Archives: E20

The final day of pre-season testing concluded today, with Kimi Raikkonen finishing testing the way he started it – on top of the timesheets.

The Lotus driver set a 1:22.030 in the morning, followed by Fernando Alonso. Bruno Senna finally showed a glimpse of Williams’ potential pace in 3rd.

The entire field was within 1.5 seconds of the leader, as most teams opted to set low-fuel runs in the morning. The afternoon running saw most teams switch to race simulations.

Kamui Kobayashi and Vitaly Petrov caused today’s two red flags, both drivers stopping out on track during the day.

Sebastian Vettel spent the entire day at the bottom of the timesheets, as Red Bull continued to do setup changes. His running in the morning was delayed by a problem with the pre-existing setup, and not the new package installed yesterday. Similar to yesterday, the car was covered in mechanics and umbrellas as it entered the pits.

The only team with the ability to do any more running is HRT, who want to test out their car tomorrow at a filming day. Marussia, who also have not turned a wheel this year, will not be able to test until Melbourne, as they still have not passed the FIA crash tests.

Romain Grosjean stayed on top in today’s heavily disrupted testing session in Barcelona.

The session was stopped no less than 8 times – several times for fog in the morning.

Grosjean set 124 laps today, posting a 1:22.614 to take top spot. Jean-Eric Vergne was set to post a faster time on super-softs, before his Toro Rosso stopped out on track.

Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso were a tenth of a second apart in 3rd and 4th, posting their times on medium and hard tyres.

The next 5 drivers – Kovalainen, Kobayashi, Hulkenberg, Schumacher and Hamilton – were separated by less than 0.3 seconds. Michael caused 2 red flags, while Kobayashi and Hulkenberg had hydraulic and driveline issues respectively.

Williams continued to fill the bottom of the timesheets, with Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado 10th and 11th.

After suffering chassis issues at the last test, Lotus returned in fine form, with Romain Grosjean leading the first day of the final test in Barcelona.

Despite most drivers continuing to focus on long-fuelled runs, the timesheets were much closer at the top – the top 8 were covered by less than a second.

Lotus were forced to strengthen their front suspension after the chassis problems last week, adding 1kg in core weight. However, the solution hasn’t slowed the E20, with Grosjean setting a 1:23.252. Jenson Button was two tenths further back.

Sergio Perez ran out of fuel at the end of his run, but was still 3rd. Mark Webber spent most of the day on prime long-fuel runs, setting a 1:23.820 later in the afternoon, going 4th. Nico Rosberg set 128 laps en route to 5th.

Heikki Kovalainen did not take part in today’s test after falling ill with food poisoning. Vitaly Petrov took his place, setting 123 laps, but stopped out on track during the day.

Williams had another disappointing day, with Pastor Maldonado last, setting only 58 laps. Onlookers at the Circuit de Catalunya have continually reported seeing the FW34 suffer from chronic understeer around the circuit.

Lotus have ceased participation in pre-season testing in Barcelona, after discovering a fault with both of their chassis.

Romain Grosjean drove the second E20 car today (named the E20-2) in Barcelona testing, but retired after only 7 laps, saying the car “wasn’t responding as it should”.

The Lotus team completed 404 laps in Jerez testing – more than any other team – but the problem with the chassis only arose today. Tests performed on Kimi Raikkonen’s E20-1 in the Enstone factory has revealed that the problem is not only on Grosjean’s car.

Team principal Eric Boullier has stated that a solution has already been devised by the Lotus engineers, but work will need to be carried out on both cars. Therefore the team will pull out of the 4-day test, and will probably return for the second test in Barcelona in a few weeks time.